Status

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Ethnicity

"Look at it... the whole city is overrun. We can't even get in without being attacked. My parents are dead... everyone that came to the city for protection is dead. They'd have to be. Nobody could survive that. And Rick... three weeks he's been in that coma. He doesn't even know this has happened...and we left him, to come here--for this."

Lori Grimes is a main character first encountered in Issue 2 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead, and was the tritagonist of the series from Volume 1 to Volume 8. She is the wife of Rick and mother of Carl and Judith Grimes, and part of the camp located outside of Atlanta. At the start of the zombie outbreak, Lori and Carl traveled to Atlanta with Shane hoping for a safe haven, only to find it in turmoil. They joined a group of survivors outside the city thinking the city would be cleared of the undead in the near future, only to leave knowing it was doomed like the rest of them.

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Pre-Apocalypse

Lori was friends with Rick's brother, Jeffrey, throughout high school. Jeff brought her to a New Year's party at Rick's college where he was studying police administration. The two hit it off instantly, and after she dropped out of her freshman year of art college, they began a serious relationship. The two were married and had a son, Carl. They lived an average life in Cynthiana, Kentucky, with Lori being a housewife and Rick being the breadwinner of the family as a Sheriff's Deputy. During the onset of the outbreak, Lori took Carl to assumed safety in Atlanta, where her parents lived, accompanied by Rick's partner and best friend, Shane.

Post-Apocalypse

On the way to Atlanta, Lori becomes increasingly emotional and is wracked with guilt over abandoning a comatose Rick in the hospital. Lori becomes so depressed and desperate for closeness that she has a passionate one night stand with Shane on the highway, which may have resulted in the conception of her baby, Judith Grimes. She constantly regrets their act and laments how great a mistake she has made.

Upon arriving in Atlanta and finding the city overrun by the undead, she, Carl, and Shane meet up with other survivors and encamp near a quarry outside the city limits. Lori slowly forces herself to accept the idea of Rick being gone, and starts to enjoy life more (though still remains conflicted over her feelings for Shane). She befriends most of the other women in the group, and they all perform daily duties together, such as washing clothes and looking after the children.

Lori is overjoyed when Rick miraculously returns, and tries at all costs to hide her affair with Shane, her regrets becoming even stronger now knowing that he was alive when she slept with his best friend. Shane continues to make advances toward her, which she attempts to ignore, but tensions between them rise as danger becomes more imminent to the group. She becomes disgusted at Shane as she sees him both verbally and physically assaulting Rick. Her resentment toward him pushes the man over the edge and ultimately leads to his death.

After his funeral, she, her family, and the remaining Atlanta band leave for safer areas of habitation.

The tenuous situation worsens when Lori discovers, by counting her missed periods, that she's pregnant. The possibility that Shane is the baby's father weighs on her, but she fights to remain strong for both her family and the rest of the group. Carol offers her comfort, which helps her keep a more positive mindset. She begins to experience morning sickness and mood swings, which amuse Rick and Carl, but frustrate her to no end.

She and Rick are devastated when Carl gets shot, and fear for his life as he lays unconscious for several hours at Hershel's farm. During their brief stay at the property, she finds out that Dale may know about her affair with Shane, and is advised by him not to say anything to Rick about her encounter with Shane no matter what, as he fears her husband may "crack".

The Atlanta group enjoys the luxuries of Hershel's home while she continues to deal with her pregnancy. Their lives appear stable until she learns that they will soon be ordered to leave, which infuriates her and leads her to confront Hershel in a brash and demanding manner. As a result, Hershel almost slaps her. Instead, he ends up putting a gun to Rick's head and forces them all to leave, much to her anger.

Lori and the remaining survivors quickly settle into the prison and attempt to rebuild their lives. As she gets closer to giving birth, she experiences more physical and emotional pain. She and Carol remain close, providing each other with support and developing a much closer bond. Despite the secure shelter they're living in, she remains wary of the few inmates that are holed up in the facility with them. Her distrust towards them gets even stronger when Hershel's daughters are murdered. She automatically pins the blame on Dexter (due to his previous record of killing people) and has him locked in his cell. She realizes later that she's locked up the wrong person.

Even though Dexter was innocent of the twins' murders, Lori is still hesitant to accept him into their group, and rightfully so, because no sooner after he's free does he attempt to force the group out at gunpoint. Life for her is devoid of any genuine danger for a while and she and the others take advantage of what the prison has to offer (being able to take fresh, warm showers, watching her fellow group members play basketball in the gym, etc.)

Her relationship with Carol begins to become strained, as she takes notice of Carol's increasingly odd behavior (which came as a result of her recent breakup with Tyreese). It puts Lori in an incredibly awkward position and she's left not knowing what to do. When she tells Rick about this, he attempts to convince her to accept Carol the way she currently is. She tries to, but it becomes difficult, even more so when Rick and some of the others go to Woodbury, which leads to her carrying a great deal of stress and anxiety. She tries to hide this from Carl as best as she can and put up a tough facade.

Carol eventually proposes a three way marriage with her and Rick, which she bluntly rejects. She very quickly grows sick of Carol's interactions, and at one point flips out at her and refuses to see her for a few hours. Lori realizes shortly afterward the error of her ways and attempts to befriend Carol once again, being able to accept her. Shortly before Carol commits suicide, she makes Sophia Lori's surrogate daughter. After the suicide, Lori is in a state of mourning, along with everyone else, and is depressed from the lack of her company. She promises to keep her word to take care of Sophia as a sign of respect to Carol.

Upon Rick's return, the family share a group hug. Lori is shocked about Rick's missing hand, but he reassures her that he wasn't bitten. Alice checks on Lori's baby and states that everything is going well, but is not sure of the due date. Hershel later asks Lori if she is worried about the imminent battle between the prison group and Woodbury, but she states that she isn't worried for the sake of her baby. Rick later confides in Lori about killing a man.

Shortly before the assault on the Prison, Lori tries to tell Rick the truth about her affair with Shane. He implores her not to, since, like Dale had said, the truth could drive him insane. Lori eventually gives birth to her daughter, Judith, with the help of Alice Warren and Hershel, though it still isn't clear who the father is. She's extremely protective over Judith, devoting nearly all time and energy to her.

When The Governor and his soldiers raid the premises, she and Alice resort to desperate measures to keep Judith alive, by staying inside and having Alice hold Lori at gunpoint to trick a soldier who might be coming in. Rick persuades them to move and get to one of the prison trucks so they can escape. She's in hysterics upon hearing of Tyreese's execution moments before, but Rick forces her to harden up and stay focused on the task at hand. They flee outside, running past bullets and watching people die around them only for Lori and Judith to be shot down by Lilly Caul as they try to escape the onslaught.

Post Death

After Lori's death, Rick talks to Lori on the phone three times. In the first conversation Lori mentions there are 14 people where she is. Later she states, "Everyone we lost came here. Everyone is here together."[1] She's seen once in a nightmare Rick has, and has been referenced many times by him. In Issue 121, Rick finally abandons the phone that he used to communicate with Lori, showing he has decided to let go of her.

After the two year time-skip, Rick reveals to Michonne that he is actually much happier with Andrea than he ever was with Lori. Despite this he also states that he would bring her along with Judith if he had the chance.

Killed Victims

Relationships

Rick is Lori's husband. They have a son, Carl, and a daughter, Judith, which they believe may have been fathered by Shane. Though Lori and Rick's marriage does not appear to have been perfect, they shared a strong bond. When the apocalypse hit, Lori assumed Rick was dead, which drove her to depression. Their love was rekindled as they were reunited, and Rick did not hold Lori and Shane's affair against her. Lori often fought Rick on his decisions as leader of the group and for putting himself in danger too much, but they loved each other fiercely. Rick spiraled into his own depression following her and Judith's death, but eventually recovered for the sake of Carl, knowing Lori would want him to move on.

Lori's first child and only son, she loved and protected him until her death. Their love is shown for each other several times. For example how Lori protected Carl by leaving his father in the hospital and traveling with Shane to Atlanta or how Carl was complaining about not being able to stay with Carol and play with Sophia, Ben and Billy but stopped when Lori asked him to, not wanting to cause her problems while she was worried about Rick. Lori's death affected Carl greatly, causing him to break down and lash out at Rick when they were staying in the abandoned house, blaming him for the deaths of his mother and baby sister.

Lori's second child. Judith's paternity was always in doubt, as Lori had resumed sexual activity with her husband before she realized she was pregnant. However, she and Rick eventually decided that even though the baby was probably Shane's, they would raise her like their own and it didn't matter who the father was.

Shane was an old friend of the family, having been Rick's partner before the apocalypse. While Rick was comatose, Shane protected Lori and Carl. However, Shane revealed to have been harboring romantic feelings for Lori for quite some time before the apocalypse. Shane assured Lori during her depression that Rick was dead, and to move on. During this time, Shane and Lori, desperate for emotional support, had sex. When Rick returned to the group, however, Lori was ecstatic to see him and quickly broke off her relationship with Shane. She tried to keep her and Shane's affair secret from Rick, ignoring Shane's continued romantic advances and telling him directly that their affair was "a mistake". Shane was driven near-insane over jealousy for Lori and became increasingly aggressive towards her, and even attempted to kill Rick. After Rick buried Shane, Lori spat on his grave.

"I kinda want to marry you. Not just you, you understand--you and Rick. Just hear me out--it's not as crazy as it sounds. I mean, I've been thinking about what Rick said, y'know--about how things are never going to go back to the way they used to be and how we need to just a new life for ourselves. This just makes sense to me. I love you both and we could all raise Carl and Sophia and the new baby together. I know it seems weird now but we don't have to follow the old rules, we can make new ones. We could all be happy together."

—Carol trying to convince Lori to have a polygamous relationship.[src]

Lori and Carol had a budding friendship throughout their time together. When Carol grew critically depressed, however, she tried to convince Lori and Rick to allow her to "join" their marriage in polygamy, but both Lori and Rick refused. Though Lori was put off by Carol's advances, she and Rick both feared for her sanity, still showing concern for her. Before Carol committed suicide, Carol asked Lori to care for her daughter Sophia. Lori promises, though that responsibility ended up falling to Maggie and Glenn.

Upon his arrival, Lori seemed to distrust Tyreese, however, she quickly grew some form of respect for him. After his fight with Rick, their relationship took a heavy blow. Upon his death, Lori, like the others, was shocked and saddened to the point where she blamed Rick for not trying save him.

Donna, along with Lori and Carol, seemed to have a stable relationship. The trio is seen, for example, laundering and communicating. Lori was also saddened by Donna's death once inside the RV and was seen hugging her children, Ben and Billy.

Lori and Patricia became friendly after Carol committed suicide. Patricia helped Lori look after the kids and Patricia was also responsible for saving Rick's life. However, their friendship is not given the chance to grow, as both Lori and Patricia are both shot and killed by The Governor's army in Issue 48.

Alice talked to Lori often about her upcoming baby. Lori was thankful for her after she saved Rick from blood loss and delivered Judith safely. Alice willingly put herself at risk trying to give cover for Lori and her family during the Governor's final attack, resulting in Alice's death.

Trivia

Lori is one of the characters Robert Kirkman misses and regrets killing.

Lori was originally going to die in #47, but her death was postponed to #48.

In the script book says that Lori is 27 years old, this was changed without any problem as it was never actually stated in the comic book her age. She would be 32 in 2003, as she is younger than Rick, 34 years old, by 2 years.

In the original pilot for the Comic Series, Lori was originally supposed to be named "Carol".[2]

Lori was the first known woman to give birth in the Comic Series since the start of the outbreak, the second one being Maggie Greene.

Every member of the Grimes family (excluding Jeffrey) have been shot at some point in time.

Rick got shot prior to the apocalypse by Reggie, causing him to fall into a coma. He was later shot in the first attack on the prison by Woodbury and was pierced by an arrow in All Out War by Dwight.

Carl was shot in the chest by Otis and later in the eye by Douglas Monroe, both times being accidental.

Lori and Judith were shot by Lilly Caul during the final prison assault.